Orbital Infinity

What do you think this term means? Let me take you on a little journey. If you’re a science enthusiast, you’ve probably heard of the legendary book Principia Mathematica. If not—no worries.

In this masterpiece, Newton revealed his three laws of motion and the equations that shook the foundations of science. In short, he used mathematics to explain how the universe itself moves and breathes.

But here’s the twist. Amidst all the precise laws and calculations, Newton also wrote lines where he invoked God.

Let me share a few exact passages (translated from Latin):

“This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”

“He is eternal and infinite, omnipotent and omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from eternity to eternity; his presence from infinity to infinity; he governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done.”

“We know him only by his most wise and excellent contrivances of things, and final causes; we admire him for his perfections; but we reverence and adore him on account of his dominion: for we adore him as his servants; and a God without dominion, providence, and final causes, is nothing else but Fate and Nature.”

“The Supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect.”

See what happened here? Newton, the man who explained the cosmos with math, still leaned on God for the mysteries he couldn’t solve—the unknowns, the gaps.

Fast-forward to today, and the story has shifted. Where Newton saw God in the gaps, people now whisper about aliens in the gaps. And maybe… just maybe… that isn’t so far-fetched.

Take, for example, one of the greatest discoveries of the past decade: astronomers spotted three interstellar visitors passing through our cosmic neighborhood. Among them the most eye-catching is the Oumuamua. When it entered our solar system, the Sun’s gravity should have bent its path in a very predictable way. But when scientists observed it closely, its actual path was slightly different from what the laws of physics had predicted. Something gave it an extra push—yet no one knows what.

Back in Newton’s time, he might have called this a mystery for the Gods of the gap. But today, some suggest another possibility the Aliens of the Gap.